Senior Officer, Digital Health and Capacity Strengthening

03-Jul-2024
Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member NSs. The overall aim of IFRC is "to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by NSs with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world." IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises.

IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member NSs and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of the IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services.

IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. IFRC also has country cluster delegation and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

The Health and Care Department's New Strategic Direction 2023 focuses on Health Systems Strengthening and WASH Systems Strengthening through 4 Pillars:

Pillar 1: Global Health Security
Pillar 2: Global Health Protection (UHC)
Pillar 3: Global WASH Services
Pillar 4: Transformative Partnership

The 4 Pillars under Health Systems Strengthening and WASH Systems Strengthening are supported by 4 Enablers:

Enabler 1: Health and Care Department Re-designing
Enabler 2: IFRC Regional and Country Health Infrastructure
Enabler 3: National Society Leadership on Health and WASH
Enabler 4: Digital Solutions and Data

Job Purpose

The purpose of this position is to lead IFRC's assessment and mapping of NSs' capacity and resources in clinical, community and climate health. This includes developing tools for analysis and visualization and providing guidance on using data analytics and digital tools to support IFRC network in delivering such services.

The Senior Officer - Digital Health supports the Lead, Digital Solutions and Data for Health, and guides the development, delivery and maintenance of digital solutions, data analytics and business intelligence linked to priority areas of the Health and Care Department. This involves enhancing digital literacy and using data to support health systems strengthening, WASH system strengthening and transformative partnerships.

The Senior Officer collaborates with NSs, academia and other key stakeholders to effectively develop, implement and utilize digital health solutions and health data analytics.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Strengthen existing work on mapping and assessing NS capacity in relation to health services provision.

• Perform a thorough analysis of health systems challenges across all NSs\' facilities, documenting prevalent issues and identifying patterns and common themes.
• Evaluate how these challenges are currently being addressed by NSs, focusing on both strengths and areas for improvement.
• Lead the maintenance and further development of the Health Capacity mapping and database, identifying other thematic areas to strengthen the knowledge and understanding of NSs\' health capacities.
• Conduct a review of existing solutions, data, processes and define the needs for data collection and implementation of new solutions/processes.

Enable the health team to be an effective global player in supporting NSs.

• Identify gaps in the current digital tool landscape where additional digitalization could enhance quality of care and improve operational efficiencies.
• Identify and evaluate new and existing technologies and platforms that ensure health solutions enable the health team and NSs to respond quickly and effectively to humanitarian crises, emergencies, immunization campaigns, and community surveillance.
• Engage divisional collaboration with IFRC, NSs, the health team and external experts to analyse needs and select, design digital health solutions that support NSs in achieving their goals.
• Support the development & maintenance of user-centred sustainable digital health solutions for NSs.
• Support and/or lead the development and implementation of standard operating procedures across the teams where digital tools are used.
• Support the development and implementation of data-driven tools and strategies to support the health team\'s activities.
• Work closely, with other members of the other teams within the secretariat, to ensure appropriate visibility and public awareness of the work of IFRC/RCRC.

Support NSs with accessible solutions that can improve their efficiency.

• Conduct assessments of NSs\' existing health resources and information systems, identifying opportunities and strategies to implement or enhance digital health interventions to maximize impact and enhance the use of health data for improved decision-making and operational efficiencies.
• Provide technical guidance and support to health teams and NSs, ensuring effective use and optimization of digital health solutions in the field.
• Support and/or lead the development and implementation of digital health solutions that can be easily adopted by NSs.
• Conduct trainings and capacity building activities to support the adoption and implementation of digital tools and practices.
• Work with the health team to support NSs in developing or optimising data-driven strategies to improve health outcomes and efficiency, such as immunisations logistics, or improving disease surveillance.
• Work closely with data protection and cyber security teams at all levels to ensure that the solution and all associated processes of data collection and storage comply with data protection and cyber security requirements and regulations.
• Engage with external partners on health capacity and information systems assessment.

Support the development of insights for effective operations management.

• Liaise with other departments to implement data governance best practices.
• Help identify and maintain solutions that support effective data collection, validation, exchange and use of data for responsive decision making such as projects management tools that minimise duplication of efforts.
• Develop and implement data-driven dashboards and strategies to improve operations management.

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

• Manage health team data, and analytics platforms, particularly in relation to National Society services and capacity.
• Use advanced analytics, AI, ML to analyse health data to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement, and communicate insights to internal and external stakeholders.
• Support and/or lead the development and implementation of decision support systems and quality improvement initiatives based on data analytics and insights.
• Provide technical guidance and support to the health team and other stakeholders to ensure effective use of health data.
• Use data analytics and data-driven insights to help the health and care team monitor the status of all activities as well as the needs of the communities it serves.

Contribute to highly effective team collaboration and teamwork.

• Contribute to a culture of teamwork and collaboration and work closely with other teams to ensure effective integration of digital health solutions and analytics.
• Work collaboratively with cross-functional teams that includes the health team, IM, IT, PMER, ..., and other stakeholders, in the design and implementation of digital health solutions and analytics to effectively use data.
• Provide support for activities related to digital solutions offered by the health team.
• Provide support to health team members to ensure they can use digital health solutions and data analytics.
• Report KPIs in a timely and efficient manner.
• Ensure dashboards, analytics and reporting on health services and capacity enable collaboration, information sharing and decision making.
• Ensure work is carried out within budget, scope and defined timelines.
• Support and/or lead the implementation of effective communication strategies, such as training programs, knowledge sharing platforms, and user feedback mechanisms related to digital solutions and data analytics.
• Support and improve the digital literacy of the health and care teams, and by extension, the NSs and communities in need, ensuring equitable access to digital health solutions and helping to bridge the digital divide.

Undertake other duties as instructed by the health team to support departmental and focus area objectives.

Duties applicable to all staff

1. Work actively towards the achievement of the IFRC Secretariat's goals.
2. Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles.
3. Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager.

Education

Required

• Advanced university degree (Master's or equivalent) in a related field, such as health informatics, computer science, data analytics, or public health administration.
• Professional certifications, such as in data science, business analytics, or project management.

Preferred

• Post graduate training in healthcare information systems management and data analytics.

Experience

Required

• At least 7-8 years relevant work experience in digital health solutions, data analytics, or a related field is highly valued.
• Strong teamwork skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
• Demonstrated experience working in an international or cross-cultural environment.
• Experience with application lifecycle as an analyst or in building, configuring and supporting health digital health solutions.
• Experience with mobile data collection tools, secure storage, validation and exchange.
• Experience in high level programming, scripting languages or statistical packages commonly used in data science and analytics, such as Python, R, SQL, SPSS or STAT.
• Experience in business intelligence (BI) and reporting tools, such as Tableau, Power BI, and QlikView, to extract insights from operations or humanitarian data.

Preferred

• Experience working with NSs and/or Federation/ICRC
• Experience in developing or configuring digital solutions and systems that address public health priorities by analyzing how information is organized and used and evaluating how this work contributes to project goals.

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Required

• Fluent spoken and written English.
• Strong project management skills, including experience in agile methodologies and in leading teams through the full project lifecycle.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to translate technical information into actionable insights for different stakeholders.
• Understanding of data governance, including data warehousing, data integration, and data quality management, and ability to ensure the accuracy, completeness, and security of healthcare or humanitarian data.
• Knowledge of digital health and data regulations and policies, such as HIPAA, GDPR, and data protection laws.
• Ability to work within a multi-cultural, multilingual and multidisciplinary environment.

Preferred

• Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic).
• Knowledge of NS operations and digital solution needs to efficiently support activities such emergency response, community health, water, sanitation and hygiene, and clinical workflows.
• Knowledge and use of advanced data analytics, including statistical analysis, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive modelling.
• Experience with use of GIS tools and basic map creation.
• Experience in operational research, scientific writing and research methodologies.

Competencies, Values and Comments

Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability
Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust

Application Instruction

Please submit your application in English only.

Application Instruction (Please note: this link will open the page in a new browser window.) (Please note: this link will open the page in a new browser window.)

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